If At First You Don't Succeed
by Joyce Maetta
Summary: Wood and Giles have second thoughts.


Author: Joyce  
Email: zinehall@yahoo.com  
Disclaimer: Joss in his genius owns everything.  
Spoilers: Post Lies My Parents Told Me  
Summary: Wood and Giles have second thoughts about Spike.   
  
Robin Wood slumped against the wall. His head hurt but his brain was spinning far worse. Spike had very nearly killed him. Nothing in the training received from his mother's Watcher had prepared him for coming face to face or rather hand to throat with a master vampire. He'd fought countless lesser vampires through the years in his quest for vengeance but never before had he come up against someone with the strength and fury that Spike exhibited. Now he understood how Spike had come across the nickname, Slayer of Slayers. Wood had underestimated him. His mistake. And he had miscalculated how attached Buffy was to this particular vampire.  
  
"If you try anything again, he's going  
to kill you, but more importantly,  
I'm going to let him." Buffy had said this to Wood with a stoic expression and left.   
  
He knew that the curtains were lifted. She understood his motives. Possibly he'd lost her trust. Maybe it was better this way. Her starry eyed looks on the job had started to annoy him. All he'd wanted was her help in catching his mother's murderer and now he'd blown it. Oh, his aching head.  
  
"Robin honey, you're not going to give up, are you?" The First in the guise of Nikki materialized before Wood.   
  
He looked at her and turned his face aside, putting his hands over his eyes. " Go away. You're not real."  
  
"Oh, but I am, baby boy. Mama wants you to make everything right". The apparition stooped down to peer into Wood's eyes. He couldn't resist the lure of her remembered voice and was hooked. " There now, baby, you'll make it better won't you? Forget the Slayer. You see she doesn't care for you anyway."  
  
Wood hung his head and clambered up slowly. Blood dripped from the wounds on his face. He raised a hand to wipe listlistly and stumbled. He looked and Nikki had moved to the door.   
  
"Come on. You can do it. You're not going to let him get away..." she crooned softly as she glided toward him again.   
  
"No. No, I'm not listening to you. Gotta think." He moved slowly out of the garage and walked to the front door of his home startling Giles who was ringing the doorbell.   
  
"Oh, you gave me quite a fright there," Giles said as he composed himself. " I see that you got the bad end of the bargain. Buffy told me that Spike was still undead." Giles helped Wood into the house and onto a couch.   
  
"Listen, Wood, maybe this isn't the best course of action right now. I'm sure Crowley instilled better values other than vendettas." Wood had stirred at Gile's mention of "vendetta". "Yes, upon hindsight, I would say this plan of yours was nothing more than that. Trust me, I know." Giles was thinking of Jenny Calendar and Angel. "Vengeance schemes have a way of destroying our integrity if we let them get the best of us. If we dwell on them, life has a way of passing by while evil runs rampant because we are so wrapped in our own cocoons. You don't want that to govern your life anymore than it already has."  
  
"But my mother's killer is still walking..."  
  
"I know. I've been in a similar situation. And he's still out there going about his deeds." Giles faced clouded momentarily showing his innermost thoughts. "But we must go on ...with the good fight and all that." He couldn't stand it anymore so he got up, went to the bathroom and rummaged for a first aid kit. When he found it, he cleaned up Wood's wounds and disinfected them.   
  
"You were saying?" Wood asked dubiously.  
  
"Ah, well, right..." Giles was having a difficult time keeping it together. Things just weren't going as planned. " Are you going to be all right? I'm rather tired and must get back to my charges."   
  
"Yeah, I'll be OK. You can just let yourself out. The door will automatically lock after you." Wood lay down on the couch and stared at the ceiling.   
  
Giles nodded and left. This whole scenario disturbed him more than he let on. He'd lost Jenny and there was nothing he could do about it. Angel was a changed being. It would be wrong to make devious plans. But he had given in so willingly to Wood's plan to destroy Spike knowing that Spike was similarly changed. Now he'd lost Buffy's trust. The urge for vengeance wasn't buried as deeply as he'd thought. Giles walked away pondering this matter. The fact that he'd lost Buffy's trust troubled him deeply. There did not seem to be a rapid remedy..and yet, he still felt that something ought to be done.   
  
Inside, Nikki First was singing softly to Wood. " You get some rest now, baby boy. We've got a lot to do."  
  
Wood sighed and closed his eyes.   
  
The End  
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Just a short vignette filler. I'm just going to practice writing more of these mainly because I suck at dialogue. Please review. 


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